This lesson was originally created for grade 5 math students in my building, but it is very suitable for grades 6-8. The lesson guides students to explore an applet by NCTM Illuminations. In the lesson, students play with an open box and its net. They fill it with cubes to gain understanding of surface area and volume.

This material is based upon work supported by the
National Science Foundation under Grant DUE-0226284.
Any opinions, findings, and conclusions or recommendations
expressed in this material are those of the author(s)
and do not necessarily reflect the views of the
National Science Foundation.